It was January 5th, and I had just downloaded the entire library of CGW/GFW Radio. I was a bit apprehensive, but little did I know, that podcast would get me through a hell of a lot over the following 6 months that I spent traveling the world. Let's start from the beginning. 

I was 13 and had just gotten my first job in my Aunt and Uncles Vineyard. A day on the Vineyard without the music on my iPod was horrible, but music wasn't enough. I had frequented 1up.com periodically in the past, the 1up boards were the first message boards I ever posted on. And my first post ended up with my account being banned, being 13, I had posted on the "Sex while playing Videogames experience" about how I thought that anyone playing Videogames over the age of 30 was pathetic and that they should actually do something with their lives. I learned to realize that I was wrong. I was getting bored of my music on the Vineyard, and finally wanted to try something new. I discovered the podcast section of iTunes, and after this thought process: iTunes>Podcasts>Audio>Videogames>1upYours. It was a dream come true to me, 2 hours of people talking about my favorite past time. It made the vineyard go a lot faster.

 Having my introduction ro podcasts being 1upYours, I didn't have very high standards. Not that 1upYours wasn't bad, they were a "Get Your News and some kind of funny Comments Here! (maybe an opinion)" show. Two years later and god knows how many Podcast subscriptions later, I found GFW. I've probably listened to practically every prominent Podcast at least once, and never during that time did I hear something so intelligent and hilarious as Games for Windows Radio. As Shawn Elliott put it, he'll have a really in-depth conversation about something, and then say something completely bizarre or ridiculous to even things out. Or as Omar mentioned, just fart into the mic. 

I listened to my first episode of GFW in an ancient Mercedes which we named Sophie. As in that whoever sat in the seat-beltless backseat was Sophie's Choice. Driving from Cape Town to Stellenbosch. It was an untidy, kind of forced podcast at the time. With a mixed crew that eventually solidified as Jeff Green, Shawn Elliott, Ryan Scott, Darren Gladstone, and Sean Malloy. So up I went Mt. Kilimanjaro listening to GFW, where half way through the 1000m plus summit day, my iPod died. And on I listened through long drives through the Tanzanian Serengeti, the mad streets of Cairo, the 5 minute taxi ride through Israel, the Jordanian Desert, the week of stomach flu in India, the 3 week trek through Nepal and up to Everest Base Camp, the luxurious malls of Kuala Lumpur, the sleepless mosquito nights in Bali, the insanely hot faux shopping in Hong-Kong, and finally, on the flight home.

I wrote a whole paragraph about the GFW glory days, but then I realized that it never had any glory days, it was great the entire time. Every episode. It didn't matter if there hadn't been any news that week, they'd just go on an hour and a half long tangent. It even came to the point where I enjoyed their stories more than their talk about games. However, my favorite things were Whisky Nerd rap, Heroes of the Web, Ryan Scotts "What The Hell", Jeff Greens "We've gota a lot to talk about",  generally anything that came out of Shawn Elliotts mouth, Darren Gladstones insane knowledge of PC stuff, Robert Ashleys international stories, Sean Malloys neverending WoW talk, and finally Anthony Gallegos's tales of nerd conventions and other such tales. Too many commas, but that'll have to do.

GFW changed the way I look at podcasts, games, and journalism in general. That's why this year I'll be road trippin' over to PAX for the first time to see them live. See you there? 

 (sorry for the poor picture formatting, I blame it on Bitmob)